June highway fatalities lowest in 27 years

Preliminary numbers show 30 people were killed in traffic crashes in Iowa during the month of June. If that figure stands, it would be the lowest June fatality count in 27 years. Iowa State Patrol Colonel Patrick Hoye is giving some of the credit to an enforcement effort that involved every trooper, regardless of rank, working at least one Saturday night last month.

The Safe Saturday Project involved troopers working late nights and early in the morning, when most fatal crashes involving drunk drivers are reported. "We worked at night because 60% of those Iowa impaired driving deaths occur between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m.," Hoye said. On the four Saturday nights last month, Iowa State Patrol Troopers arrested 99 motorists for drunk driving.